The Hunger Strikes Back

Canada’s Health Minister Allan Rock last week said the country would take a closer look at hazardous-waste concerns in Sydney, Canada, 17 days after the executive director of the Sierra Club of Canada, Elizabeth May, went on a hunger strike to call attention to the problem. May, who ended her strike by taking a bite out of an organic strawberry, said, "The levels of cancer in Sydney are the highest that have been documented anywhere in Canada. It also has a very high birth-defect rate." She attributes many of the health problems in the Nova Scotia town to toxic waste that came from a steel mill, and she’s written a book on the issue, describing Sydney as the Love Canal of Canada.

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